New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-05-05
be an end to progress and prosperity in this
country 80 long as that control lasts.
NERvo UsNESs ABOUT TIE TARIFF

Mr. Carlisle, Speaker of the last House, who
expects TO be Speaker of the next House by
virtue of the power of Democratic majority
to decide that he was lawfully elected and that
a Labor candidate was not has been making
some observations. He says that the next
House will unquesionaby pass bill to re-
duce very materially the customs duties
which is a careless expression, to say the least
for great many people have questioned and
do question the passage of such a bill. die
says that it cannot be passed by Democrats.
hut lit will not be difficult TO obtain suf1i-
cient number of recruits from Republicans in
the West and Northwest, who care getting
more and more nervous on the tariff question ;
and that the New England laMugwumps, as
we call them, are nearly all tariff reformers.
If they are properly cultivated, they will not
be long getting into the Democratic party
II is blessed thing to have a man like Mr..
Carlisle on the Free Trade side, to blurt out
now and then the plans and hopes of the foes
of home industry.
The increasing nervousness of the Western
and Northwestern Republicans on the tariff
question is not imaginary but real. Only it
does not seem TO help Mr.. Carlisle. These
people are getting so nervous that they elected
last fall, in States west of Pennsylvania and
north of the Ohio River, delegations with more
genuine Republicans and fewer tariff rcfomers
in them than have been chosen at any other
election for many years. Minnesota helped
the Democrats by electng three Democratic
members, it is true, but that lessons by three
the number Of Republican allies to be found
by the Free Traders in the House. The Dem
ocrats also gained one member in Nebraska.
But they lost sixteen members in Illinois, In
diana, Iowa, Ohio and Michigan. The more
nervous the Western people get about the
tariff, the fewer Free Traders they elect. 1t
was in Ncw-England that Mr.. Carlisle's Free
Trade party did make gains, and the Mugwumps
there, he is perfectly correct in saying, are
nearly all his allies. That is no news; THE
TRIBUNE printed it with great plainncss Of
speech months before the Presidential election
of 1884 But the entire gain Of the Free
Traders in all New-England and in Minnesota
and Nebraska amounts to eight members.
against sixteen lost by them in five Western
States. Then it may be added that Mr.. Car
isles party lost five more seats in Virginia,
one in North Carolina. and two in Kentucky
at the last election, not including Mr.. Carlslc's
wv stdI, NliCu HC CNINcbo w iS'"ih ~ SN'ei"S
counted in by a Democratic majority. If the
Free Trade leaders can draw any comfort from
this evidence Of increasing nervousness on the
tariff question: they are welcome to it.
Prophecy about the next House is cheap, and
correSpondingly valueless. But the impression
among those who have been accurate in their
estimate of probable legislation heretofore, as
Mr.. Carlisle has not been, is that his Free
Trade party will find in all not more than two
Republican allies in the next House, in place
of five in the last, and that the Democratic
followers of Mr.. Randall, who refuse to commit
political suicide for the benefit of Western and
Southern Presidential asprants, will be found
more numerous than ever. If Mr. Carlisle will
cut out this statement of a prevailing impress
sion, and consult it after the next vote on tho
tariff question in the House of Representatives
he may be reminded that the mantle of Elijah
did not fall on him.